Intrinsic optical bistability and multistability in a passive GaAlAs waveguide
Abstract
The first observation of bistability in a passive waveguide device arising from an intrinsic nonlinearity within the guide medium is reported. Both refractive and absorptive nonlinearities are observed to give bistable characteristics and, in the region in which both mechanisms are significant, up to eightfold multistability is seen in this device. The results summarized here indicate that both a slow, thermal mechanism and a faster nonlinearity of possibly electronic origin contribute to the observed device characteristics. The relatively low power, down to about 2 mW, required to observed bistable switching shows the potential of the waveguide geometry for enhancing nonlinear interactions of this type.
- Publication:
-
Electronics Letters
- Pub Date:
- March 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1049/el:19860249
- Bibcode:
- 1986ElL....22..366W
- Keywords:
-
- Aluminum Gallium Arsenides;
- Nonlinear Optics;
- Optical Bistability;
- Optical Waveguides;
- Dye Lasers;
- Power Efficiency;
- Refractivity;
- Temperature Effects;
- Optics